My first book of April was the second book in the Soul of Shadow trilogy by Emma Noyes, the first one I finished at the end of March after it was gifted to me by my Book bestie; the first one was so good and fast paced but also very interesting. This second book was released late last month so, perfect timing!

If you haven’t read the first book and are interested in doing so, I would suggest you stop reading this review because it can spoil some of the things happening in the first book. Ready to go back to Silver Shores? Let’s go!

The look of surprise on Loki’s face at the end of book one when he sees Charlie and Mason is priceless but when he utters the words ‘My Children’ before disappearing to Helheim again, it leaves Charlie with a lot of questions and Mason in complete denial. Elias went back to Helheim with Loki because he finished his assignment; finding Fenrir.

Three weeks of absolute bliss, no more missing children and people seem to be able to breath again; not fearing for the safety of their children. Charlie, Lou, Abigail and Mason have started training in the early hours three times a week in the forest. When wrapping up training one morning they stumble upon set of corpses. Two children – a brother and sister whom they vaguely knew, murdered, their fingers are chewed off. Mere hours later, Elias shows up in the school cafeteria – as if nothing happened but as soon as Mason’s eyes land on him, he’s out of his chair and pounding on Elias until they get separated and sent to the principal’s office.

Sophie, Charlie’s twin sister who supposedly died but actually became a Valkyrie shows up announcing a new danger, one that has to do with the murder that morning. The creature that they are looking for is called Rattatosk. Rattatosk once was a messenger squirrel of Odin – passing along messages using Yggdrasil to get to other realms. But he has changed hands multiple times, his current ‘boss’ is unknown. The one owning Rattatosk can be found wearing a golden band around his wrist symbolizing his immense long leash needed to get through realms.

Charlie doesn’t want anything to do with Elias after he betrayed her like that and broke her heart in the process. She knew better than to fall for a mare since he doesn’t feel the same as humans do, but she soon comes to the conclusion that she actually needs him to try and access her magic if the claim that Loki is her father is really true. While Charlie is busy with that and Abi has been obsessing over everything Valkyrie and Lou being Lou; supportive but prone to banter, Mason has been avoiding Charlie as best as he could.

There is a school trip that is upcoming, where they stay the weekend camping inside the woods near what students know as ‘the gut’. With Rattatosk still on the loose and more children being murdered one thing becomes clear when a message comes through; Rattatosk is after Loki’s children which means Charlie and Mason have a target on their back.

Will this trip be safe for them or is it where Rattatosk will finally find them? And if he does find them, will they survive?

Loved this book; absolutely devoured it and can’t wait for the next one to be released in November of this year. I can’t give this book less than ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ stars.